Doctor's Advocate

VINYL FORMAT. While his big rival and former employer, 50 Cent, squandered his success by spreading himself too thin with video games, films, and a whole lot of time devoted to the G-Unit empire, the Game spent his time working the streets with beef-minded, sometimes-epic freestyles landing on mixtapes. Every time the G-Unit versus Game beef was just about to be settled, the Game showed up late to sign the treaty, and then, when he was called out on it, he would retaliate as hard as before, bringing everything back to square one. His mentor, Dr. Dre, told him to lie low, but give the Game good advice and he'll do the opposite, as if he were compelled to do so by some unseen. As the release date of his heavily anticipated Doctor's Advocate approached, things got weird. Because of the G-Unit contract, nobody was sure if the album would say Aftermath or Insterscope on the back. In the final moments, it was revealed that the cover art shamelessly references his debut, and then -- towering above it all -- there was Dre's absence from the final product, and yet the album's original, Dre-boasting title sticks like a final "screw you"/"bring it on" pointed right at the haters. As all this drama spills into the actual album and feeds the cocksure rapper's craving for chaos, it becomes obvious the "sophomore slump" wasn't enough of a challenge for the Game, and even more obvious that he's following a career path of his own... - All Music Guide